the motocross track, at least for our
admittedly "average" skill level. Pros
will want to stiffen things up a bit, for
sure, but for everyone else, we feel
the X's suspensions hit the nail on
the head for aggressive riding and
GNCC- and WORCS-type racing.
Going up a tooth on the rear
sprocket on both bikes was the
smart thing to do. This helped the
250 launch out of the turns a little
quicker and put less stress on the
clutch, and it also made it so you
could ride the bike longer in sec-
ond gear while keeping you out of
first gear, which is now pretty much
used just for emergencies. And if
you're really moving, it's not unreal-
istic to hold third gear longer than
usual, too. And we never found our-
selves running out of revs when the
trail opened up.
For off-roading, we tend to gear
up 450s since they have the power
to spare, but Kawasaki went in the
opposite direction with the 450X.
However, with the mellower black
map, we found the combination
made the 450X's engine very
manageable on the trail, and the
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